Newcastle United Football Fans Blog

It has been a bit of a tough time of late for Newcastle United both on and off the field, but, the boss Steve McClaren is quite unruffled.

McClaren believes politics is not something new to the clubs belonging to North East, but, one needs to get on with his job and that’s what he is doing.

Speaking yesterday, McLaren said, “I am quite used to politics. It does not bother me. Having spent more than one and half decades in North East, I am aware of everything that goes on. It pretty much happens in all the clubs in this region.”

“Politics is obviously something that you don’t want to be there. The only aim should be to make the club grow and go from strength to strength in terms of performances. You want everyone to be on the same page and working with the same goal.”

“The idea is to be consistent and get ourselves contending for Europe at some point of time and that will happen only if we work together. There were indeed some encouraging signs in the match we played versus West Ham to finish our season off and that pleased me.” Read more »

Newcastle United’s caretaker manager John Carver believes that he will be able to succeed in his role and get a permanent position at the club, but he places his hopes on the club providing him with much better players.

Newcastle are far from being consistent in the second half of the season and this is widely linked to the managerial ability of Carver. Alan Pardew was a Newcastle manager for four years and during this period he finished the season just outside the top four in the 2011-12 season. He managed to achieve this despite being on a limited budget.

Carver has no complaints about the players he has at his disposal, but in the huge number of injuries mean that he has had to put together a makeshift defence for matches against top teams. This coupled with the lack of a motivational factor for the players has resulted in the club winning just one out of the last five matches. Despite this, they remain a comfortable 10 points away from the relegation zone with eight matches left. Newcastle are almost certain to stay clear of relegation if they win another match. Carver has pointed out to the injuries to key players like Stephen Taylor, which has seen him use players out of position in the defence. Read more »

Newcastle United caretaker manager John Carver says that he is concerned by the lack of a permanent managerial appointment at the club. Carver was placed in charge of Newcastle after the sudden departure of Alan Pardew.

After being one of the longest serving managers in English football, Pardew decided to leave Newcastle for a job at Crystal Palace. Even though he left the club in a good situation in terms of the league positioning, Carver has been unable to maintain it. After having taken just one win in the last five matches, Newcastle have slipped into the bottom half of the table.

Even though they may have significant cushion from the drop zone in terms of league position, not a lot of points separates them from Hull City in the final relegation spot. Read more »

Kieron Dyer reckons that some fine players are going to come out of Ipswich Academy in future.

Dyer has been working as a coach in Ipswich Academy for one year or so and he is impressed with the talents that he has seen there.

Dyer, who played for quite a few Premier League clubs including Ipswich, was speaking to a website the previous evening.

When asked what he thinks about the kids whom he is coaching right now, the 35-year old said, “I have been working with a few very special talents and I have no doubt that those kids will go on to become big players.”

“When I was 14, I did not have as much potential as these guys have at this age. Five-Six years down the line, the academy would produce some high class footballers, mark my words.”

When asked how he has felt working alongside Bryan Klug, Dyer said, “Well, he is a legend. I respect him so much and it’s been wonderful to work under him. It’s good that he came back to the club.”

Dyer himself is also a product of the Ipswich Academy and it was Klug only who had developed him in mid nineties.

Along with Dyer, some of his boyhood mates including James Scowcroft had also made it to Ipswich first team.

When being reminded of that, Dyer said, “Yes, I agree to you. Recently, not too many have made it through, but, there would be a change in the coming years. Some young guys are already leaving impression at the junior level and I am sure they would keep progressing.”